My responses to this book by three women in their twenties, explaining the behavior of their generation, in the order that they (my responses) occurred: irritation, incredulity, admiration, boredom, concern. I'll take them in turn.

Dubbing their cohort "choisters," because the wide-open world of options they have before them makes them disinclined to settle on any path/location/job/relationship, the authors seem to have written this book to shut their mothers up. They justify at great length their uncommitted, nomadic lifestyles, which don't seem to me to need any justifying. Indeed, it is the men in their twenties who often garner criticism for their playing-World-of-Warcraft-in-their-parents'-basements-in-their-underwear-instead-of-looking-for-a-job ways. Young women are graduating from college and grad school in immense numbers, out-earning their male peers (the only group of women to do so), and generally staking claims all over the world. And oh my, are they impressed with themselves.

That's where the irritation comes in. The authors extol the virtues of the choisters so loudly and insistently, one wonders if it is possible to have a fatal overdose of self-esteem. Incredulity set in when, after a full chapter of "how awesome are WE," the authors launched into a self-congratulatory exploration of just why they are so very self-absorbed. (The answer: our Boomer parents made us this way. Undoubtedly true, but perhaps unnecessary to point out.)

I reached admiration in chapter three: "The World is Yours, Choister." The authors explain their dominant paradigm: nothing, nothing, nothing is going to stand in our way. They will travel where they like, pursue the studies, experiences, men they like, and ignore all societal pressure to tamp down their ambitions. These three authors and the many young women they interviewed do not stand still for parents, jobs, or boyfriends, and they seem to have no fear. Rock on, choisters!

Alas, boredom set in when the dating and mating discussion began. Young women today sleep around and live with their boyfriends without the benefit of marriage. They seem quite convinced that this makes them unique. Speaking as a member of a previous generation--been there, done that. Astonishingly, the authors provide an entire chapter on the subject of how choisters break up with each other. Ladies, dumping is dumping, whether done in person or via Skype.

Finally, here's the alarming part. The choister ladies are aware of some of the dangers they face, but either ignore them, dismiss them, or apply dubious solutions to them. They note that the hooking-up lifestyle carries some risks, but gloss over them without so much as a spiff for the condom industry. They are aware of the time limits on female fertility, but place an unwise degree of faith in medical science to make it possible to procreate on their own terms. The boogeyman that seems to scare the authors the most is divorce. Once they rip off the "choister" labels they've stuck on their foreheads and gotten married, these women want their marriages to be foolproof. They assert that they've hit upon the method that will ensure marital bliss: try out every man you can get your hands on to figure out what sort of man you really, really want, then live with that man to make sure his quirks are still more endearing than annoying several years later, and then marry him. It's touching, how much they want to be sure they and their spouses won't wind up in court like so many of their elders. It pains me to say this, but living with your boyfriend, with no kids, in your twenties, bears very little resemblance to living with your husband, with kids, in your forties, even if it is the same guy. And won't the overweening sense of choister entitlement they all feel lead them to scarper when a better guy comes along, even if the knot has been tied?

If I had to choose a phrase to sum up The Choice Effect, it would be "whistling in the dark." There's a lot of bluster and bravado standing in front of the authors' uncertainty and worry about the future. In that respect they are not so different from other generations--same dance, new technology.

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